Western States Center Statement on El Paso Walmart Shooter Sentencing
Today, the self-avowed white nationalist who wrote that Hispanics were “invading” America before killing 23 people in an El Paso Walmart, was sentenced to 90 life sentences in prison on federal hate crimes charges. Lindsay Schubiner, Director of Programs at Western States Center, a national civil rights group based in the Pacific Northwest, where it monitors bigoted and anti-democracy movements and works to counter their influence, issued the following statement:
“Hate violence is enormously devastating as it harms the victims, their families, and the entire community at once and with long-lasting consequences. This mass murder will reverberate in El Paso’s Latino community for generations. Western States Center applauds the legal system for holding the perpetrator of this tragedy accountable, but this sentencing will not prevent future racist violence. While legal accountability is essential, a comprehensive political and social response to bigoted violence is the only way to prevent future mass murders like this one.
“The El Paso shooter was not commiting a random act of violence. He was motivated by decades long anti-immigrant vitriol and white nationalist conspiracy theories that continue to drive anti-democracy actors to violence. White nationalist and anti-democracy movements have worked to normalize their bigoted ideologies, aided by many in elected office.
“The anti-immigrant rhetoric that in part led to this tragedy persists. Just this year, in Committee hearings about the US-Mexico border, U.S. House Republicans continue to use the word ‘invasion’ to describe migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, rhetoric that echoes aspects of the Great Replacement Theory and works to demonize and alienate Latino people in this country, while waving off critics who say the rhetoric fuels anti-immigrant views and violence. To make it perfectly clear: elected officials using inflammatory and bigoted language has deadly consequences.
“It is urgent that there is robust condemnation of bigoted, racist, and anti-immigrant activity and rhetoric from elected officials at every level of government and society at large. We owe it to the El Paso victims and their families.”